Croatia Airlines will introduce a new seasonal service between Split and Istanbul this coming summer. It will mark the carrier’s return to Turkey’s largest city after just over eleven years. The airline operated its last service between Zagreb and Istanbul on March 30, 2013 but has never flown between Split and Turkey in the past. The new route will be maintained three times per week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays departing Split, returning from Istanbul on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, with the Airbus A320 aircraft. Flights will operate between May 7 and October 12. Tickets are now available for purchase through the carrier’s website. Further details can be found here.
Split - Istanbul marks Croatia Airlines’ first new route of the 2024 summer season, although the carrier is expected to make more additions. The development also sees the Croatian carrier continue its expansion out of Split where it has grown significantly over the past few years transferring some of its seasonal Zagreb flights to the coastal city instead. In 2023, the airline added two new routes from Split (Oslo and Skopje), while in 2022 it introduced operations to Stockholm, Bucharest, Dublin, Milan, and Amsterdam. All of the seasonal destinations that commenced out of Split over the past few years will make a comeback this coming summer. As a result, its capacity out of Croatia’s second largest city will grow 30% this summer compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 summer season.
Split becomes the third Croatian city to boast scheduled nonstop flights to Turkey, following Zagreb and Dubrovnik. Turkish Airlines, which links Istanbul with the two, has been considering Split as its third destination in Croatia for several years but its plans to serve the city have never materialised. Croatia Airlines and Turkish Airlines have a limited codeshare partnership despite both being part of Star Alliance. The Croatian carrier has its designator code and flights numbers on its Turkish counterpart’s services between Turkey and Croatia, while Turkish Airlines codeshares on Croatia Airlines’ flights from Zagreb to Split, Dubrovnik, Pula and Mostar.
I wouldn't be surprised if TK goes ahead and launches Split as well.
ReplyDeleteQuite the opposite, this will not happen because OU introduced the line in cooperation with TK, which cannot get slots at SPU anyway.
DeleteWhy can't TK get slots at Split? Split has new routes from Volotea, Play etc.
DeleteVolotea is an E.U Airline.
DeleteOpenSkies and slots are not the same thing.
DeleteWould it have anything to do with Turkish airlines flying from Melbourne, Australia to Istanbul, Turkey? Soon Sydney, Brisbane & Perth to Istanbul.
DeleteMany Croatia bound passengers ultimately head to Split. Very smart move by Croatia Airlines.
Are TK and OU codesharing on these flights?
DeleteGood to see its 3x weekly. Usually OU goes for 1 to 2 weekly flights.
ReplyDeleteThey're probably targeting transfers from East Asia with this, as IST has a lot of transfers
DeleteTimings are good to catch IST arrival wave from Asia
DeleteConsidering the tunraround has several hours on the ground in IST, what does the crew do? Do they just sit on the plane until time comes for the return?
ReplyDeleteDrink Turkish coffee, eat baklava and wander around IST?
DeleteObviously the crew changes for each flight
DeleteThe crew does not change in IST and they don't have a layover in Istanbul. They operate SPU-IST and then IST-SPU a few hours later.
DeleteNo they don't.
DeleteYes they do. The crew does not have a 2 day layover for operating a one and a half hour flight to Istanbul.
DeleteYes its the same crew just like they do in SKP and SJJ. OS, OU and JU crew are all doing the same, they have rest in the airport for 4-5 hours.
DeleteWhy would you spread disinformation like this? Both SKP and SJJ have a change of crew. What the hell, why would you write this nonsense??
Delete@13.19 such a nonsence. OS does crew change in SKP. just look on insta profiles of cabin crew members
DeleteNormally for OU in SJJ/SKP: crew flying in with last flight flies back during the afternoon. Meanwhile the crew who fly in afternoon, flies back next morning.
DeleteThere are exceptions to this, like crew staying two nights eg. inbound late night, outbound early morning. Or in some cases “short night stay”, in this case they are only allowed to fly ZAG-SJJ/SKP and back the next morning without having flight directly before or after. Short night is always the case with OMO, and I assume it would be the same with IST.
Even with the short night stay the crew members have hotel rooms - never heard that crew have 5h layovers and that they spend those hours in the airport for any airline mentioned.
Didn't see this one coming. A route east of Croatia!
ReplyDeleteThis is exotic as it will get from OU :D
DeleteWhy don't OU and TK codeshare more?
ReplyDeleteBecause LH is mama.
Deletesuch a stupid comment. LH and TK also dont "codeshare more"
DeleteWell they don't. Very limited cs between two Star members.
DeleteLH and TK don't codeshare because they are two large airlines flying to many of the same destinations. OU on the other hand currently has 13 routes out of ZAG, all of them in Europe. So they would have much more to gain from actually codesharing with TK, especially to destinations in Asia and soon Australia. But that would be in direct conflict with their sole mission of feeding Lufthansa. That's why they don't codeshare with TK almost anywhere
Deleteyou can book flights on TKs website SPU-BKK/DEL and some others with OU on SPU-ZAG
DeleteThe fares are quite good at the moment.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are some really cheap ones available in peak summer. Will probably sell out quickly.
DeleteCould it work year round? If Dubrovnik can, why not Split?
ReplyDeleteDubrovnik can't. The loads are not great in winter
DeleteWell they still operate the flights in winter.
DeleteIn Dubrovnik every other IST flight is cancelled, if you don't believe me check the Dubrovnik airport arrivals page.
DeleteNot every other. They reduced the timetable in advance.
Deletebut it is good that this winter they are operating, even though it is reduced.
DeleteAbout time
ReplyDeleteAny chance for them to introduce ZAG-IST?
ReplyDeleteNo chance, especially since TK has started adding third daily flight from Zagreb on some days. Would have made sense in the past that they did a mid-day rotation.
DeleteExcellent news!
ReplyDeleteThis is a very smart move. They will utilize an aircraft during the night when they can't land in Western Europe and bring Turkish tourist to Croatian coast. Plus many of those doing a tour along the Mediterranean.
ReplyDeleteTurkish tourists? Not many of those, and those who come usually come with buses, we see them fairly often in Dubovnik. They come visit Dubrovnik for a few hours and then continue to Neum or Trebinje for overnight where it is much cheaper.
DeleteWell are there any official figures how many Turkish tourists there are in Croatia?
DeleteBravo Hrvatska!
ReplyDeleteThis year IST will be the 1st airport with the most airlines serving flights.
ReplyDeleteCongrats OU to make this smart move and fly to a real hub.
I hope TK codeshares with OU on these flights and OU can get access to TK's enormous network especially in Asia and Americas.
The article mentions that TK already codeshares on ZAG-SPU so I assume they will codeshare on this flight too.
Deletethey are growing everywhere besides ZAG
ReplyDeleteTrue
DeleteThey will probably add new routes from ZAG this year finally.
DeleteGood day for Croatian aviation today, great news for major airports ;)
ReplyDeleteWho would believe this would happen ?!? So unlike them to schedule something which is so different from the two German cities … Now let’s hope they continue in this way :)
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWill this be operated by the wet leased Trade Air A320?
ReplyDeleteThe Trade Air A320 will be based in SPU during peak season but it won't be exclusively assigned to this route.
DeleteWhy the long turnaround time in Istanbul? Slot issue or to cater for transfers?
ReplyDeleteSlots
DeleteIt does seem to be slots. The only flights these will connect to from IST are:
DeleteWednesdays - Copenhagen and Munich
Fridays - Stockholm
Sundays - Stockholm, Dublin, Munich
I really don't think this is for transfer passengers. If people really want to transfer with OU, they can do so via ZAG on TK-OU ticket.
DeleteThey are not targeting any connecting passengers. You can not even buy tickets from Istanbul to any destination outside of Croatia on their website.
DeleteOh wow you are right. Are they not even going to offer it as a possibility or they just haven't loaded the fares for connecting flights yet?
DeleteKnowing OU, they won't even offer it.
DeleteIs there even a final destination that they can transfer to that isn't already extensively served from Istanbul
Deletedo they have another A320 overnighting at SPU? They could use it for a night rotation somewhere east: maybe TLV??
ReplyDeleteI don't think there will be much demand for Tel Aviv this summer.
DeleteThere will be demand from Israel for holiday destinations especially. I think it could work. I assume DBV-TLV will be back.
DeleteGreat. I hope they will also expand from ZAG.
ReplyDeleteGood for Turkish tourists
ReplyDeleteThree weekly is quite a lot of flights for them. Hope it works out.
ReplyDeleteAny data on how many Turkish tourists visited Croatia last year?
ReplyDeleteAdding Split - Istanbul to their route map is a great move. I'm excited to see what other destinations they'll unveil for the 2024 summer season.
ReplyDeleteFinally, Split joins the list of Croatian cities with direct flights to Turkey. Next up - Pula :D
ReplyDeleteIf there were no bureaucratic obstacles the likes of Pegasus and Sun Express probably would have added Split long ago, and other cities on the cost too.
DeleteYes, you are most probably right.
DeleteHow many flights did OU have between Zagreb and Istanbul before they discontinued flights?
ReplyDeleteDaily with Dash
DeleteThank you
DeleteJasmin finally discovered markets east of Minken
ReplyDeleteAnd Vrankvurt.
Deletedoubt is him
DeleteIt's not the real Pozdrav. His account was registered, meaning you could click on " Pozdrav iz Rijeke"
DeleteNice try. But no one will ever master the art of mr Pozdrav.
Delete+1 That is a fake Pozdrav.
DeleteOhhhhh.......
DeleteI really hope the original Poz is ok. Don't have a good feeling about this.
DeleteGood choice
ReplyDeleteThis is great actually. Its good to see that they are at prepandemic levels at least in Split. Lets see what else we get
DeleteWell ahead of pre-Covid in Split :) but still very behind in Zagreb
DeleteBecause they just transferred a lot of the routes they launched between 2016-2019 from Zagreb to Split.
DeleteSeems like their summer base in Split is working out well
ReplyDeleteMoney marker
DeleteHow many planes does Croatia Airlines have based in Split during the summer?
DeleteI believe they have 3
DeleteIt's hardly a money maker when the company still makes an operating loss that's greater than before it moved routes to split.
DeleteHow is the operating loss greater when they have actually reduced their losses?
DeleteThe operating loss is not reduced. The financial loss is reduced because they stole off assets
DeleteNice but sad that this is the most "exotic" and "out of the box" destination we can expect from OU.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteHopefully this will change as the A220s arrive.
DeleteWith the bigger sharks entering the HR market, poor OU is finding ways to explore new markets. Especially that now FR really targets it a market and will very quickly conquer the capital and coast as it it did with many countries. In Bulgaria, FR became very agressive and attacks W6 on the "golden" routes which were for years working very well such as ALC and VLC for example. They beat them in Bari and Pafos and now suddenly Copenhagen. They are taking advantage of their massive cancellations and look Varadi knows the region very well, but Michael is an old fox and knows very well what he is doing. easyJet used to be very strong on the Gatwick route and now they became weaker as well again because of the harsh competition. Manchester is their strongest route. W6 was supposed to begin flights in April from Burgas and now postponed to June and FR immediately reacted and launched the same routes earlier. And Bulgaria Air with their new A220 will have no other choice either to codeshare with Agean and Iberia, ACMI operator in winter like they have been doing, transfers via CDG, AMS and LHR or take the politicians to Brussels. Of course Varna remains an important destination for them with 3 daily flights but "chased" FR away imo.
ReplyDeleteI think OU must very carefully study which destinations are really working well for them, the big boys are smart and if W6 appears in ZAG it will be very tough. I think OU can try eastern destinations from ZAG and not rely too much on LH. Why noy Yerevan, Tbilisi or bigger Romanian and Polish cities being huge countries with lots of people?
Also why not make Split or Dubrovnik not so seasonal? BWK airport is also forgotten. HR has a huge coastline and many airports for its population similar to Bosnia. Just fail to understand why OU is being super passive in a country that has so much potential. Of course, similar to Air Serbia when a Balkan country progresses it just makes you great. Will be very curious to see what happens with the arrival of the A220s.
+1
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